Lawyer for 'pharma bro' Shkreli paints ex-CEO as misunderstood genius

(Reuters) - Martin Shkreli's lawyer did not run from his client's troubled public image, describing him as a misunderstood genius, as he began his defense in the former drug company executive's securities fraud trial on Wednesday.

"You may not like Martin Shkreli," Benjamin Brafman said in his opening argument in Brooklyn federal court, "and you may have reasons to hate Martin Shkreli, but that is not a basis on which to convict."

Shkreli's reputation stems largely from his decision to raise the price of anti-parisitic drug Daraprim to $750 a pill, from $13.50 when he was chief executive of Turing Pharmaceuticals in 2015. That move sparked outrage among patients and U.S. lawmakers.

But Brafman reminded jurors that Shkreli is "not on trial for all of the other stuff that made him a household name."

Instead, Shkreli, 34, is facing charges over to his tenure as an executive at drug company Retrophin Inc and hedge fund MSMB Capital Management between 2009 and 2012.

Before Brafman's opening, Assistant U.S. Attorney Karthik Srinivasan told jurors that Shkreli lied about MSMB's finances to lure investors, concealed devastating losses and repaid them with cash and stock stolen from Retrophin, which he founded in 2011.

"They got their money back only because the defendant stole from a public company, and it eventually turned out to be successful," Srinivasan said.

Shkreli was ousted as Retrophin's CEO in 2014.

Brafman, in his opening statement, conceded that Shkreli's statements to investors were not always "100 percent accurate."

But he said Shkreli's wealthy investors trusted Shkreli despite knowing about his erratic personality, and were rewarded in the end, reaping millions of dollars in returns.